Please ask us for feedback

We’ve been offering feedback to our applicants for quite a few years now, and we’ve moved from an informal call-me-and-I’ll-see-what-I-can-figure-out arrangement to more of a system.  And as the system has developed, so has the expectation on the part of the Admissions Committee that someone intending to apply a second time should ask what went wrong the first time.  If you weren’t admitted this year and you hope to reapply (and if you haven’t, in frustration, given up on the blog), I want to encourage you to ask us for feedback on your application.

Here are the rules.  After May 1, send us a feedback request by email with this information:

♦The semester/year for which you originally applied (for example, September 2011);
♦Any specific questions you have about your application or the process;
♦Your plans for the coming year;
♦The term for which you intend to reapply.

One of us will review your application.  We’ll read through everything in the file, but much of what we write will reflect the comments of the reviewers, not our own opinions.  We only offer opinions if we think there’s a key point that the reviewers didn’t note.

Regardless of when you intend to reapply, I encourage you to request feedback this year.  We received some requests last December for January applications.  Unless the problem with an applicant’s first application was in the personal statement, what exactly can he do to improve his profile in only one month?  So contact us this spring, and you’ll have some ideas to work with until you reapply.  Until then, I’m sorry you didn’t receive admission this year, but experience tells us that many applicants will be successful in a future round.  I hope we’ll see another application from you in the future.